Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson is a gripping, tragic, masterpiece of suspense set on San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. Having watched the movie based on this book many years ago, I decided to read the book but surprisingly I did not recognize the story. Now I need to watch the movie again.

This was good... ish, until it wasn't. The writing was strong, but it's bloated with too much description of things that don't matter and there's a weird stream of sexism in both the overwrought descriptions (I sure learned a lot about the male characters' wives hair and breasts) and the "main" character is basically an incel who uses romantic rejection to justify his racism and unethical decisions. I'd love to hear this story written by a person of Japanese-American descent because there are some strong historical lessons here, but Guterson doesn't quite get there (especially under his '90s lens).

I started this book not knowing what it was going to be about... the title told me nothing. As it turns out, it's a murder mystery, a love story, a war story, and a courtroom drama. Oh, and also about racism. Everything but science fiction is in here!
The writing impressed me. Early on, there is a part that I liked so much I wrote it down: "People appeared enormously foolish to him. He understood that they were only animated cavities full of jelly and strings and liquids." (pg.35). That's pretty dark. But it gets darker! The WWII battle scene was as gorily realistic as Saving Private Ryan.
The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because towards the end, the author started describing, in excruciating detail, every step the reporter Ishmael Chambers takes when a snowstorm knocks out the power in the small town of San Piedro; his trip to the grocery store, the hardware store, the mechanic's to get snow chains put on his tires (Ishmael has only one arm, lost in the war). Then we get to read about every step the bailiff makes as he opens the courthouse. These were totally unimportant and a waste of time reading, had nothing to advance the plot. Seemed like filler. I felt like the author didn't know what to do for a while.
I won't spoil the ending. I will just recommend this book to people who like gripping dramas.

FIRST REVIEW FROM 2009:
Very depressing, somewhat predictable so far. However, it's great for anyone discovering "better" fiction. It will definitely appeal to teenagers in the high school setting.

REVISITED REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

I revisited “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson because I am planning on teaching this book to my upcoming 10th graders this school year. At first when I read it for pleasure reading a few years back, I found the novel to be quite trite and predictable, with a maudlin love story at the center of a story that concerned itself with racial prejudice, the Manzanar internment camps, and Japanese honor.

However, this time, I found myself less cynical, and more open to the possibilities of a good love story, set among the bleak backdrop of World War 2 and Washington’s Puget Sound. Kabuo Miyamoto is a Japanese American fisherman who wishes to reclaim land that his father had paid for from the Heine family, ironically, German-American immigrants who had themselves been persecuted for their Nazi sympathies. Mr. Miyamoto finds himself accused of murdering Carl Heine Jr., and this murder-mystery sets up stories of flashbacks- of passion, of longing between Miyamoto’s wife, Hatsue and her forbidden romance with journalist Ishmael Chambers, a white boy who has loved her from afar.

Gorgeous images of snow literally falling, strawberry fields, grey skies and water pervade this haunting love story, of honor, of cultures going and coming; of assimilation, and of a history that many of us don’t wish to face- the Japanese internment camps are a part of our history that should be seen with shame, yet acknowledged and learned from.

This dude really needed a ruthless editor.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, is based on remote San Pedro Island (fictional) in Puget Sound, Washington State. Kabuyo Miyamoto, an American-Japanese man is accused of murdering a fellow salmon fisherman whose body is found mysteriously tangled up in his fishing net. San Pedro Island is a very small community, everyone knows each other – Salmon fishing is a major industry as is farming crops such as strawberries (yum).

There is a substantial Japanese community on the island and during WWII this group of people were subject to unpleasant treatment by the locals and even worse, discrimination, racism and suspicion of corroboratring with the enemy from both local folk and the US Government. Xenophobic sentiment is bubbling over, this had been distilling for decades. The plight of the Japanese-Americans was a significant take away for me after reading this book – I didn’t realise how poorly these people were treated during and after WWII. Many had even fought for the US Army after the attack on Pearl Harbour for heaven’s sake!



This book started off as would any other courtroom drama – so I strapped myself in, as I was well in the mood for such a story. Well, after only a few pages along comes our first flashback – this annoyed me a bit, then another and some flashbacks even had their very own flashback, within a flashback – yes, they came thick and fast.

This, when all I wanted was a good courtroom scrap.

Of course, Guterson was using this device to provide the reader with an in-depth perspective of the community and the people in it. Once I got over my hissy-fit and stopped stomping all over the house, huffing and puffing - I sat down, grew a pair, and really, really enjoyed it. In fact, I loved it.

There’s a whole lotta ‘small village’ crime stuff here, there’s the victim, the alleged murderer, their wives/husbands, kids, relationships, sad stories of loneliness, small town politics, WWII, nasty skulduggery and more.

In fact, Guterson force fed this witless reader, who thought he was starting a mere crime/courtroom drama with an in-depth tale of people and relationships in a rural community. These 460 pages have a lot in them, but Guterson writes them with lubricated ease – it’s even gentle, as the name suggests.

One last thing, I would imagine this part of the world – North West USA & South East Canada has have some of the most beautiful scenery in the World, I’d love to go!!

A very solid 4 Stars

n  

"Accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart."

n
There are books that are to be read with all your senses, Snow Falling on Cedars is such a book. Here you fell and read about prejudice and star-crossed love, flashbacks of war times coupled with recollections of the dramatic Japanese-American internment during the Second World War. All in a all-present atmosphere, Snow Falling on Cedars has enough ingredients to assure a great read. But there is more, lovers furtive encounters, a crime and a trial; I'm sure I'm leaving much behind... Nevertheless, what more could any reader wish for?

David Guterson writes masterfully, transmitting to us readers a fascinating scenery and ambiance that goes well beyond relationships. As you turn the pages, without even realizing, you can feel profoundly not only on your skin but in your heart:

n  "Inside their cedar tree, for nearly four years, he and Hatsue held one another with the dreamy contentment of young lovers. With their coats spread against a cushion of moss they'd stayed as long as they could after dusk... The tree produced a cedar perfume that permeated their skin and clothes. They would enter, breath deeply, then lie down and touch each other - the heat of it and the cedar smell, the privacy and the rain outside, the slippery softness of their lips and tongues inspired in them the temporary illusion that the rest of the world had disappeared..."n

But those had been indeed hard times:

n  "I know you'll think this is crazy, but all I want is to hold you, and I think if you let me do that just for a few seconds, I can walk away, and never speak to you again."n

But aside from making you feel alive, Guterson creates a wide variety of full-blooded characters, with their own agonies, sentiment most acute in the case of Ishmael and his misery for the lost love and his war sufferings. Indeed, I found Guterson quite successful in evoking feelings long dormant within me. Ah, to be young and to love regardless of reality. But we do grow old, and when we least expect reality shows its hard countenance. We suffer, we loose, we adapt, we grow up, but we ultimately survive.

This PEN/Faulkner winning novel employs a narrative technique that distinguishes it. The tale is told from the points of view of the cast of characters. From their viewpoints the tale unfolds and we come to know the characters themselves more intimately because of their roles in relating the tale. Faulkner used this same approach in As I Lay Dying in which a group of travelers narrate their perspectives in the course of arduous travel. Chaucer likewise in The Canterbury Tales. The structure hinges around the murder trial of a Japanese-American who fought on the European front for the Allies during WWII. Unobtrusive flashbacks take us inside the minds of the characters as the tale unravels in an otherwise straight-ahead narrative style. The author's descriptions were quite beautifully moving and complete and finely drawn. The allusions to the snowfall during a great storm were a cohesive leitmotif repeated throughout the novel. The dialogue was, I found, a little uneven and a few of the characters seemed a little flat. However, the novel has heart and the primary characters rise to meet the harsh crises that life sends their way with dignity and honor and grace. The novel deals intelligently and unsentimentally about the subject of bias during a painful epoch for Asian-Americans. I would rate the novel between four and five stars: just shy of great for this appealing mainstream novel.

You do not have to love this book because it has a pretty cover!!!!

The cover is gorgeous. Frame it. Then throw away the rest of the book.

Just found this on my bookshelf, read years ago and recall it as gorgeous. Time to pass it along.

This is one of my all time favorite novels read sometime back in the 90s before my Goodreads.com days. The following short review is from the PageADay Book Lover's Calendar for today:

This was one of the first popular novels to explore the lasting effects of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. When the novel opens, it’s 1954 and memories of World War II are strong in an island community off the coast of Washington State. When a Puget Sound fisherman is found drowned, another fisherman, who is Japanese American, is accused of the crime. This compelling story combines courtroom drama with memories of a particularly shameful chapter in American history.
n  SNOW FALLING ON CEDARSn, by David Guterson (Vintage, 1995)

I love a good trail! This book reminded me of when I was a “Court TV “ fan.